


Arranged

by SweetKitsune



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 15:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16915593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetKitsune/pseuds/SweetKitsune
Summary: He looked handsome, was her first thought as she slipped into the private room.  His mother had just left the room before the miqo’te snuck in. Their eyes met in the mirror that he had been facing and Katherine felt her eyes get damp. The mage was never one to cry but… but this… Alphinaud turned to her, tears shining in his own eyes as he covered the few steps between them and locking his arms around her. Her name fell from his lips like a prayer. They embraced like this for a long moment before Alphinaud spoke.“We could run"





	Arranged

He looked handsome, was her first thought as she slipped into the private room. His mother had just left the room before the miqo’te snuck in. Their eyes met in the mirror that he had been facing and Katherine felt her eyes get damp. The mage was never one to cry but… but this… Alphinaud turned to her, tears shining in his own eyes as he covered the few steps between them and locking his arms around her. Her name fell from his lips like a prayer. They embraced like this for a long moment before Alphinaud spoke.  
“We could run to Doma. Lord Hien would take us” 

Katherine crack a weary smile. It was true- their friend would likely be more then happy to have them there despite the situation. But… They couldn’t just run away. As much as she wanted. As much as she hated that his was happening. That her only love was being forced to marry. It was for Status, His father’s words forced the union. Despite all of the protest, she wasn’t good enough. It would have been a fools thought to think that she could compare- warrior of light or not.   
“We could not abandon our duties”   
The dry sob that slipped from Alphinaud made her heart clench. Her tail curled low between her legs and her ears were limp. 

He knew her words true. 

She took their hands together, threading their fingers. Their eyes met, His blue ringed red, her own still glazed with unshed tears. Katherine pulled their hands up to brush her lips to his knuckles while she looked up at him.   
“My heart will always belong to you” Tears shone in his eyes again and a few slipped down his cheek. The hand not tangled with hers came up to cup her face he leaned to brush their lips together, deepening if after a moment. When they separated, his shoulders trembled.   
“And mine too you” His voice cracked as more tears slipped down his cheeks. 

 

It was hard, to sit here. To sit quietly as she watched the proceedings. Sharlayan weddings seemed to be dreadfully boring. An adventures bonding would have suited what Alphinaud had become so much more, she thought. She looked down at her folded hands in her lap before looking back up. Their eyes locked. She had yet to cry- she wouldn’t she had promised herself. But when their eyes met and his own looked so pained the Miqo’te broke. Tears slipped down her face and she did her best to hide them, A hand covered the one that remained in her lap as the other tried its best to wipe her tears. The hand that threaded with hers was nearly the same as the one she had tangled with not to long ago- this one more calloused then the boy who stood at the altar. 

Alisaie’s grip was more firm than her brother’s had ever been. 

It only made her tears fall faster.

\---

It had only been mildly surprising that when Alphinaud had expressed a want to go back to Eorzea that his wife had wished to come long. 

Separating Her and Alphinaud's things into different rooms at the rising stones had nearly been the last straw for the Miqo'te. 

The actual breaking point had been when the woman had arrived on Alphinaud’s arm and looked down her nose at the Scion’s home. A comment had set the warrior of light off and sent her storming out. 

Katherine did her best after that to never be alone with the woman, lest she lose her temper again. Not being alone with Alphinaud was harder to avoid, considering many of the things that they had once done together- side by side.

The mage had turned and left when she found Alphinaud with his wife pressed close to him, her lips on his.

Katherine had never considered herself stupid- nor did she want for primals to rise, but. Once they had she was grateful for the distraction. She had never felt more reckless in her life then tossing herself into fights like this alone. 

The burns she had upon her return from fighting Ifrit weren't from the Primals flames. 

Y’shtola knew. It was obvious as the woman’s hands hovered over her arms, the soft glow of white magic lighting the room around them.   
“You are going to get yourself killed” the white haired Miqo'te said softly into the silence. The white magic stung against the burns as it drove out the traces of her own. 

The white magic faded, leaving only slight traces of the burns in its wake. 

Rest, she had been told. Taken back to her room back to her cold bed. The bed she hasn't slept in for moons. And she wouldn't. No matter how many times the sheets were washed she could smell Alphinaud on them still. 

It burned part of her to know he was just a few rooms down. 

So, She snuck out under the cover of night, and when morning came, ignored her linkpearl. 

It was bitterly cold.   
The abyss stretched out far under her. A fall from here would kill even her. 

She sat there for a long time. Legs hanging over the edge and looking out. How easy it would be to toss herself off the edge. How easy it would seem to give it all up. 

The soft crunch of boots against snow, and then the soft brush of fabric against her skin made her glance over. Aymeric settled at her side, a tad farther back off the cliff's edge but close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. There was silence for a long time before he spoke. 

“I was jealous for quite some time” he offered quietly. “Seeing the way the two of you were together”   
Katherine’s ear twitched at the words but she gave no further acknowledgement, Aymeric’s feelings had always been obvious. 

His gloved hand rested gently on her arm and she looked up at him.   
“But even a blind man could see how good for one another you were”   
She shook her head. Aymeric gently took her arm, urging her up and away from the cliff as tears glazed in her eyes. He curled his arm around her so tightly as though he was afraid that she would jump off into the abyss before his very eyes. 

The wind swirled around them and felt like hands urging her away from the fall. 

There was a moment of chaos as she slipped into into the rising stones. Everyone had gathered it seemed, she could feel the way everyone's eyes turned to her as the door slid shut. Alphinaud as always was the first to react, with a cry of her name the Elezen quickened the few steps to the door. There was panic in his movements, in the way his hands shook as the reached for her. She could feel the way he wanted to wrap them around her and pull her close. But after a second of hesitation settled them on her arms.

“Y’shtola said you’d been hurt, and then you left.” His eyes sought out injuries and he seemed to calm a bit when he didn’t find anything horrible. The tension in the room settled thick and heavy after that moment. As though no one was sure how to proceed.

Katherine flashed him the barest hint of a smile, teeth sharp in her mouth.   
“I’m quite well. I simply wished to visit Ishgard. Ser Aymeric And I had tea” 

The words felt like a lie in her mouth.   
-

It was a year before something broke.  
Surprisingly it wasn’t her. 

The first months had her temper short. By the second half of the year Katherine had stopped herself, no matter what her heart wanted it was over now. She couldn’t keep pining after this, least she do something horrible. So she did what she did best as a black mage, locked her feelings down and tossed herself even more into her work, into slaying primals when they came up.

She spent very little time at the Rising Stones, even less time in the company of Alphinaud- and never time within the Stones with him. She couldn’t avoid him completely. Not with the fact that he was often the word of the scions. He was one of the most diplomatic out of them after all. 

It was a surprise then when she got a call to come to the Rising stones, Thancred’s voice had been strained as though something was wrong, wish a swift burst of magic she was teleported. Her ears pricked forward even as she walked through the Seventh Heaven and to the door that lead to the Rising Stones. There Was shouting she realized, very muffed from outside but that meant that something was going on in the main area. Thancred’s tone returned to her and the Miqo’te pulled her staff off her back, grip tightening on the rod as she gently pushed the door open. 

“You’re worthless!”  
Despite everything that had gone on in the last year, Katherine’s instincts hadn’t changed. The sight of the Elezen woman in Alphinaud’s blank face, a scowl on her’s and shouting and jabbing a finger at him had Katherine from the door to close where they stood in seconds. 

The surge of her Aether was enough to make Alphinaud turn to look at her- and his eyes widen at the sight of her. His wife turned to look as well and seemed to only anger more.   
“This is Your Fault!” she barked, making a wild gesture, before pointing right at the miqo’te.   
“The whore who’s lead him astray from his wife” she hissed, the words startled Katherine enough that her jaw dropped and the fur along her tail to prickle. 

Alphinaud’s did as well and his head whipped back around to the woman with shock etched on his features and a bark of her name.   
“You just called the warrior of light a whore!” There was disbelief in him.   
“The name fits!” the Woman hissed back. “What other kind of woman does what she has!”  
“Katherine, Has hardly done anything to warrant that!”   
“Oh yes, i'm sure those drawings hardly warrant the title!” Alphinaud’s face flushed dark, and his eyes narrowed.

Hadn’t they left any of His drawings of Katherine in the warrior’s room?

“You’ve been in her room” The sneer that covered the woman’s face was ugly and she scoffed.   
“Forgive me for going through the door I see my Husband, do through on occasion out of curiosity” the tone sarcastic and angry, the woman had known exactly what she was doing. 

“And what do i find but Notes of love from him to you. Drawings on bookshelves!”

“Is that all?” Katherine’s voice seemed to startle the woman, as though the had never heard the mage speak. Out of the corner of her Eye Katherine noticed the rest of the Scions watching from a distance. 

“Is that all!? You’ve ruined my marriage and that's all you have to say?” She took the few steps forward to tower over Katherine then, eyes blazing with anger and what could only have been the intent to do something crazy.  
Katherine shrugged, she couldn't even feel surprise as the woman’s hand snapped out to strike across her face. 

Alphinaud was stepping between them after that, his eyes burning.   
“Out” The woman seemed taken aback,  
“What!”   
“Get.Out” Alphinaud’s tone was harsh, and Katherine clamped a hand onto his elbow, feeling the way his aether boiled. He had far too much control to actually hurt her- but even with just the basics of black magic she had taught him long ago could be dangerous. 

He turned to face her, his eyes were still wild and the miqo’te froze. The anger wasn’t at her- for sure. Distantly she heard someone urging the woman out of the Stones. 

“Never in my life have I thought I would hear someone call you a whore” Katherine choked on a laugh.   
“Hardly the first time” she shrugged. “What do you intend to do now?”   
He paused for a very long moment, looking away from her before looking back.   
“Make my Father very unhappy I would think” another pause and he tilted his head to the side.  
“And mayhaps returning my heart where It belongs. Assuming it's...still wanted” a sad smile covered her face and she looked down.   
“Given time mayhaps”


End file.
